SDCC 2010: Will Ferrell & Tina Fey MEGAMIND Roundtable Interview

Following their panel in Hall H, in which Will Ferrell made quite the impression, dressed up as the character he voices in the DreamWorks animated feature, Megamind, he joined voice co-star Tina Fey for roundtables to discuss the November 5th release.

Jettisoned to Earth as a baby when his home planet is destroyed, Megamind (Ferrell) crash-lands inside a maximum-security prison, where he evolves into the wicked and diabolical genius he is today. Meanwhile, the dashingly handsome superhero Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt) grows into the universally adored savior of Metro City, where he is beloved by everyone, including the city’s ace reporter, Roxanne Ritchi (Fey). These life-long archenemies will inevitably challenge each other to the ultimate showdown of good vs. evil, where both will strive to prevail.

During the roundtable interview, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey talked about working together for the first time, the homoerotic match-up of Ferrell and Pitt, and why the movie also appeals to adults. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Question: Tina, 30 Rock is a very comic book friendly show. How has your experience at Comic-Con been?

Tina: It’s been great! We did the panel, but I haven’t had a chance to really mingle. I just met a few people right after, and everyone is really cool and nice.

Is this the first time you guys have worked together?

Will: Yes, it is.

Tina: I started an internet campaign to get us to work together, but I did it on iVillage instead of Facebook, so it didn’t really get any traction.

Will: That’s why. I wasn’t aware of it. It’s funny, in the sense that you hope to leave Saturday Night Live and work again, period. Then, you get some momentum and it’s very easy to get into your own sphere, as things start happening. It’s funny that we’re connecting.

This is also a long-awaited match up between Brad Pitt and Will Ferrell. How does that go down?

Tina: It’s pretty homoerotic.

Will: Yes.

Tina: Not since Sherlock Holmes has it been so homoerotic.

Will: In a DreamWorks animation, totally safe kind of way.

Tina: Yeah, that was totally a joke.

Was it disappointing to do a movie with Brad Pitt, but not actually get to work with him?

Tina: I’m pretty sure we’re going to meet, at some point.

Will: I don’t think he wants to meet you.

Tina: I sent him over 100 letters saying that I’m pretty sure we’re going to meet.

Will: You sent him over 100 letters and 100 Mylar balloons.

Tina: Yes, and 100 chunks of my hair.

Will: If he doesn’t think that’s a great gift, then he’s crazy.

Tina: If that’s not great, then one of us is crazy.

You both have children, and so do Brad and Angelina. Do you see yourself having play-dates with them, down the road?

Tina: We live on opposite sides of the country.

Will: We’ll have to try to meet in a neutral city.

Tina: Like Denver.

Will: Kansas City, Denver or St. Louis. We can have a play-date there. You never know. If Brad wants to have a play-date with all the kids, we could hook that up.

Is there cool stuff in the movie for grown ups, too?

Tina: For sure. Visually, the movie is stunning, with the parts that I’ve seen, that they’ve done. And, a lot of the story is really this guy trying to figure out who he is.

Will: It’s pretty grown-up, actually. From what I’m hearing, it’s one of the more grown-up stories that DreamWorks has done and, hopefully, that’s not a bad thing.

What’s the appeal of doing a film like this?

Tina: Well, for me, certainly it’s being able to work with Will and Jonah [Hill] and Tom McGrath. Also, it’s just the basic premise. When you hear the simple one-line premise of the movie, you go, “Oh, that’s a good story. Why haven’t we told that story before?”

Will: Yeah. And, I had another animation experience with Curious George. That was fine, but I was rather ambivalent to the whole thing. But, when this kind of pitch came along and it was DreamWorks, which obviously has a great track record, and they said that it was going to be an out-and-out comedy, you go, “Oh, this is the way that it’s supposed to be.” That’s why I jumped in.

Were you able to ad-lib anything, in the process of making this film?

Tina: Oh, you totally can, yeah. You’re not wasting anything. They can record forever, so you don’t even feel that you’re being a jerk, if you ad-lib.

Will: Yeah, completely. That’s the beauty of getting to do this work. On a regular film, you can go off on a tangent and they usually say, “Great, but let’s get back to the script. But, with animation, you can play around with any scene, in any way, and it’s pretty low-impact. It doesn’t slow down the process at all. It was very encouraging.

Based on your own personalities, what would be the ideal superpowers?

Will: Tina already has superpowers.

Tina: I do. I can shoot lasers from my eyes. It’s not a big deal. I’m not going to do it now.

Will: She doesn’t exploit it. She doesn’t even like talking about it. I’m sorry I brought it up.

Tina: And, Will can turn things into ice, and ice into water, if you give him like an hour.

Will: An hour and warm conditions. I’ll get it back to water.

Who would your alter-ego superhero be?

Tina: The Hulk. I’d be transformed by rage.

Will: Wonder Woman, only because she has that invisible plane.

Tina: And, he spins a lot.

Will: I do spin a lot. I also have a cool little golden lariat, just by chance. I picked up the golden lariat at the Pasadena swap meet, at the Rose Bowl.

Tina, any chance that, if Alec Baldwin is done acting after 2012, that that will be a logical point to wrap up 30 Rock?

Tina: Well, I think we’ll all see where we’re at in 2012, if we make it that far.

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